Player of the Week - No. 6

Player of the Week - No. 6

October 11, 2011

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Columbia (Mo.) setter Paula Ferreira has been named the NAIA Volleyball National Player of the Week for the second time this season, the national office announced Tuesday. Ferreira was selected based on her performance from Oct. 3 – 9 and was chosen out of a pool of conference player of the week selections among 23 conference/independent/unaffiliated groupings.

Ferreira becomes the first player since Bethel’s (Ind.) Stephanie Harwood, who took Player of the Week honors in consecutive weeks in Sept. 2008, to win the award twice in a single season. Ferreira’s placement set the tone for a fourth-ranked Cougar team that won all five of their matches on the week. She totaled 215 assists, 54 digs and 23 kills in 18 sets as Columbia notched wins over No. 2 Embry-Riddle (Fla.), No. 11 Indiana Tech and No. 18 Missouri Baptist. For her play, she was named the Most Valuable Player of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Tournament.

The 5-9 junior from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, ranks fifth in the NAIA with 11.34 assists per set. She leads the Cougars with 669 assists this season and her 3,733 career assists places her second on Columbia’s all-time list.